Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

Today's installment features a rescued-from-obscurity rarity from comics great Gil Kane.

In 1974, Gil Kane created Blackmark as a paperback series for Bantam Books. Kane was a comics artist specializing in superheroes who had drawn every major character from Superman and Spider-Man to Green Lantern and Conan. Blackmark was his attempt to go "independent" and create a series which he would own and whose creative direction he could control. The first volume of this sword-and-sorcery/heroic-fantasy narrative, designed and published in the paperback format, has been out of print for over 25 years, and the completed second volume was never published. Fantagraphics Books is proud to collect both volumes in a single trade book format, larger than the original paperback size to better showcase Kane's elegant art.

The second issue of Floating World Comics experimental comics tabloid. Maybe you were lucky enough to find a copy of the first issue? They’re free at cafes, bars, and shops all over Portland. Issue 2 features more incredible work from Luke Ramsey , Evan Meister, Barnaby Ward, Bald Eagles , Kevin Hooyman and more.

Every day in July we're spotlighting books from our month-long Hidden Gems Sale, wherein we're featuring some of our under-the-radar backlist titles and encouraging you to try them by offering them at a nice discount of 25% off!

Before Alex, Kalesniko made S.O.S., a lyrical allegorical comic with a beautiful Asian-American protagonist. The story details how Chloe slowly finds her identity and achieves independence and empowerment while literally "adrift on the ocean" on a small sailboat beset by a huge, ravenous shark. S.O.S. is a metaphorical one-shot, a dramatic short subject told entirely in pantomime. Kalesniko brilliantly unveils the conflicts within Chloe — between tradition and modernity, between the safety of her chinese family and the unfamiliar dangers of the Western world. The story is told in ink, collage, and wash, introducing to comics the exciting panel-to-panel "camerawork" which Kalesniko has refined into an assured mastery.

Monty, a Canadian comic-and-toy-shop owner and a pathetic 39-year-old virgin, expects his Asian mail-order bride Kyung Soo to fulfil his female Asian fantasy stereotypes: obedient, hardworking and loyal. Tall and accentless, Kyung turns out to be much more complex than Monte is willing to accept. This sharp and affecting look at their prickly relationship is told over 264 elegant, touching pages in this original graphic novel by Disney animator Mark Kalesniko. Kalesniko adroitly juxtaposes Monty's non-sexual, juvenile obsessions with his objectification of his bride, drawing a direct line between loneliness, consumerism, and how the need for order in one's life compromises the approach to matters of the heart.

Before the astonishing Mail Order Bride, Kalesniko created this equally fine work of comic art. He combines stylish graphics and a keen eye for the perspective of a child in his first book-length graphic novel. Here, the unexpected suicide of a young, marginally successful actor sets the tone for this examination of the childhood of Alex Kalienka. Petty humiliations, minor injuries, small betrayals — the overall gradual degradation of growing up different provides a stunning glimpse at the existential nature of life.

Related Sites

Free Membership Benefits

Register and Login to receive full member benefits, including members-only special offers, commenting privileges on Flog! The Fantagraphics Blog, newsletters and special announcements via email, and stuff we haven't even thought of yet. Membership is free and spam-free, so Sign Up Today!